“You cannot imagine how sad it is to watch helplessly at the performance of his solitude.”
A classic is a classic, so any comment we make may be superfluous or even reductive. For this reason we decided not to dwell on the story that led to the birth of the book, or on the plot, or on the stylistic code adopted, rather we preferred to tell what it meant for us to re-read it after years.
The book is a late but important reassurance on man’s purity. When you have planted all the tears that you have inside, when you are forced to live as inmates to have your life saved, when you watch powerlessly at the end of the world from the window, when the dawn of the last day of our life arises, there is always room to continue hoping for a better tomorrow.
The importance of memory is underestimated. The past time and the partial comforts acquired have made us forget the tragedies that have trampled the heart of Europe, and set entire nations on fire. Unfortunately, when memory has no solid foundation, the risk of making the same mistakes is very high. A warning to leave to the younger generations. And perhaps also for this reason the BooktoMi project was born, because through the reading tips we hope to keep the flame of curiosity, awareness and knowledge alive.
Anne Frank represents all the girls of the world torn from their innocence by war. Yesterday in Europe, today in Africa and Asia. The guilty, however, are not only the torturers, but distant spectators, those who pretend not to see, those who deny the truth, those who point the finger at their neighbor: us.
Maybe in twenty years there will be other “diaries” that will tell the tragedies of other peoples, and what will we say when we ask ourselves what we have done to avoid them? Nothing, realistically nothing, and we will rediscover ourselves like our grandparents and great-grandparents.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank, 1955.
Edizione originale: Het achterhuis. Dagboekbrieven van 12 Juni 1942 – 1 Augustus 1944, Bert Bakker, Amsterdam, 1947
